


Sing Your Heart Out

by enigmaticblue



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 13:31:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1690094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enigmaticblue/pseuds/enigmaticblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jenny Calendar needs some advice, but there aren’t a lot of people she can trust. Set sometime between The Dark Age and Surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sing Your Heart Out

She’d heard of this place long before she felt a need for it. She was, after all, a gypsy; someone who traveled, going wherever the wind took her. At least, that’s what she had been before her uncle called on her to stand watch over the monster that had killed so many of her clan.

 

What was strange was that she felt no hate for him. The soul was doing its job, making him suffer, perhaps even making him more human.

 

So, she was here because of another, not Angel. She knew her duty in that area at least.

 

The Host sat on a stool at the front of the bar, telling a tall tale of some kind. Jenny hadn’t been there for the beginning of it, and she didn’t pay much attention to the end. She was waiting for her turn to sing, so that she could get some direction.

 

Jenny played with her glass, swirling the liquid and watching the play of light and color. She had no desire to sit here, waiting, nor had she any real wish to get up in front of all these strangers and sing. But she needed to know, and this seemed to be the only way.

 

“A pretty lady like you shouldn’t be alone.”

 

She glanced up to see the Host standing next to her table. “Oh. Is it my turn already?”

 

“Not quite. There are a couple of folks ahead of you. Do you mind?” The demon gestured to the empty chair across from her, and Jenny shrugged. He seemed friendly enough, and it would be odd to refuse to speak with him when she expected him to read her destiny.

 

“Thanks.” The Host sat down in the chair across from her. “Can I ask what brings you here tonight?”

 

“What else?” she asked with a certain amount of self-deprecation. “I came to have you read my destiny.”

 

He tilted his head. “Are you sure I’ll be able to tell you something you couldn’t figure out for yourself?”

 

“And what would I tell myself?”

 

“That you’d rather not be alone tonight, and the person you’re missing is only a heartbeat away.” He leaned forward in his seat. “You’re easier to read than a neon sign, cupcake.”

 

Jenny shook her head. “I can’t be with him. I discovered some things about him.”

 

“Oh?”

 

It was such a noncommittal sound that Jenny felt compelled to continue, explaining everything that had happened with Eyeghon, being possessed by the demon, and nearly dying as a result. “I just don’t see how I can trust him.”

 

“He did it on purpose?”

 

“No, of course not,” Jenny said quickly. “Rupert would never hurt me intentionally.”

 

The red eyes were piercing. “It sounds to me as though you have your answer.”

 

“It’s not that simple.”

 

It was and it wasn’t, as Jenny well knew. There were things that she hadn’t told Giles, things that she couldn’t tell him. If he knew—if Buffy knew—that she was there to watch Angel, that she was really Janna Kalderash, they wouldn’t forgive her. How could they?

 

The Host smiled gently. “Hum a few bars for me, sweetheart.”

 

Jenny should have minded him calling her that, but somehow it felt natural. “I don’t know what to sing.”

 

“Whatever feels right.”

 

She sang a few bars of a song that had been on the radio on the way down from Sunnydale, something with a catchy chorus, although that was all she could remember of it.

 

The Host’s expression was even more deeply compassionate than it had been a moment before. “I see,” he murmured.

 

“How can you?”

 

“It’s part of the package. I read souls, destinies—” He reached across the table to pat her hand. “You could say that I read hearts.”

 

“And what did you see when you read mine?”

 

The demon didn’t reply right away. Instead he took a sip of his drink with his free hand; the other remained on hers. Jenny spared a moment to wonder if he was as lonely as she was—the only one of his kind, just as she was the only one of her clan.

 

The only one who knew the truth.

 

“I don’t think you should pass up the chance at love,” he finally said. “It doesn’t come around too often, and you never know how long you’ll have to enjoy it.”

 

Fear rose in her chest; she’d come close to death once already. Jenny didn’t know that she was quite ready to risk it again.

 

“Life is all about risk,” the Host said, as though replying to her thoughts. “We’d never go anywhere new without it. Sometimes, it pays off.”

 

He rose, then leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Come see me again sometime if your gig in Sunnydale doesn’t work out for you.”

 

“I will,” she found herself promising as he moved back into the crowd, mingling with both demons and humans, full of _bon vivant_.

 

As he walked away, Jenny realized that he’d never really told her what he’d seen, and she couldn’t help but think that was because she didn’t want to know.


End file.
